Karnataka: SC internal quota won't apply for recruitment exams already held

Bengaluru: The state Cabinet on Thursday decided that its new 5.25-5.25-4.5 formula for internal reservation to Scheduled Castes will not apply to cases where an examination for recruitment has already been held.

Briefing reporters after the Cabinet meeting, Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister H K Patil noted that the new formula will only apply to the 56,432 job recruitments to be undertaken and also to all recruitments for which examinations have not been held yet.

The minister explained that the previous Government Order (GO) issued on April 27 will be withdrawn and a new order will soon be issued.

According to sources, the Cabinet decided to issue a new order since the earlier order did not mention the cases where examinations have already been held.

The new rosters will be prepared for 400 points. According to this, Group A (Madiga and 15 affiliated castes) in SCs will get 21 points (5.25x4), Group B (Holeya and 18 affiliated castes) will get 21 points and Group C (Lambani, Bhovi, Korama and Koracha and 59 nomadic, semi-nomadic and highly sensitive communities) will get 18 points.

The Cabinet gave administrative approval to the Hyderabad-Bengaluru and Chennai - Bengaluru High Speed Rail corridors which will jointly include seven stations within the state.

The 306-km long Chennai-Bengaluru High Speed Rail Corridor (CBHSRC) will run 100 km and have four stations (Kolar, Kodihalli, Whitefield and Bayappanahalli) within Karnataka. As many as 1,358.96 hectares are needed for this project.

Of the 607-km Hyderabad-Bengaluru High Speed Rail Corridor (HBHSRC), 101.03 km will pass through three stations (Alipura, Devanahalli and Kodihalli). Overall, 237.5 hectares of land are needed for the project.

These two projects were announced by the Union government in the 2026-27 Budget.

School kits

The Cabinet also approved the Labour Department's proposal to provide school kits including books and other accessories to children of registered construction workers at an overall cost of Rs 115.84 crore.

These kits are expected to be provided to school children from Class 1-5, Class 6-8 and Class 9-12 at the beginning of the academic year.

The Cabinet also approved forming the State High Powered Steering Committee (SHPSC) and State Level Technical Committee (SLTC) to manage and oversee the implementation of the Urban Challenge Fund (UCF) announced by the Union government in the 2026-27 Budget.

The move is aimed to ease the population pressure on cities, which is expected to be 50% of India's population by 2050.

Rs 600-cr plan for minorities' colonies

The Cabinet approved an action plan of Rs 600 crore for the development of colonies of minority communities for the years 2026-27 and 2027-28.

Responding to a question, Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister H K Patil clarified that the decision was not political and was not related to any developments concerning the byelections to Davanagere South constituency.